**Divorce wish woman ordered to fall to the ground **
A council of elders in a village in southern India has ordered a woman to fall at their feet for five hours, as punishment for requesting a divorce.
The Hindustan Times newspaper reports elders in Valaypatti, Tamil Nadu, ordered the ‘punishment’ to be awarded to Suganthi after she sent a divorce notice to her husband Rajendran for allegedly torturing her.
The woman was handed the punishment after she chose to ignore the option offered to her by the elders of either withdrawing the divorce notice or paying an equivalent of £693 as fine. The five members asked the wife and her mother to keep falling at their feet, saying that the penalty would be reduced with each “touchdown”. Suganthi told the newspaper: “We underwent the punishment from 10am to 3pm. “We could not continue for long and fainted as they had even refused to give us water. Finally, we were released when two of our relatives paid the amount.” —Ananova